


Fourth

by daysofinspiration



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 15:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11382882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daysofinspiration/pseuds/daysofinspiration
Summary: Lucy is supposed to be in Washington for the week, but she knows better than to be in the capital right now. She doesn't want to make a fuss over it, so she doesn't say anything to Alex or Maggie.Of course, Maggie notices anyway.





	Fourth

They're supposed to go to the beach today.

Lucy agrees when Alex asks her and Maggie, smiles when they make plans and book dinner reservations. She knows the beach will be just as bad – just as busy and loud as the city will be today, but she agrees when she sees how excited Alex gets. Alex loves the water, and Lucy loves Alex, so.

Lucy is actually supposed to be in Washington for the week, but she knows better than to be in the capital right now.

She agreed to the conference months ago, without really thinking about it. Washington is exhausting, but she goes as often as she's required to, knowing she gets to come back to Maggie and Alex.

Mid-June rolls around and Lucy realises the conference she's attending and the meetings she's booked for last the entire week, a few days into July. She doesn't say anything, doesn't let any of her Washington counterparts know she won't be attending, but she makes the decision not to go.

She doesn't want to make a fuss over it, so she doesn't say anything to Alex or Maggie, doesn't draw attention to the blue line through the end of the month on the kitchen calendar with the words "Lucy DC" written above.

Of course, Maggie notices anyway.

Maggie calls her out the night before her flight out of National City. She has the fridge door open and is looking at the calendar on the wall.

"Babe."

"Yeah?"

"Don't you leave for DC tomorrow?"

Lucy doesn't look up from the pasta she's making. "Mmm."

"You haven't packed yet."

"Yeah… I… um…" She doesn't have an answer.

Arms snake around her middle and she feels Alex's chin rest on her shoulder. "Since when do you do things last minute? Last time you left, you were ready two days early."

Lucy lets herself sink into Alex's embrace for a moment, struggling to keep her face even and her breathing calm.

"Luce?" Maggie asks.

She turns in Alex's arms, and glances between her and Maggie.

They look concerned, so she forces a smile. She says, "I thought I'd stay here, spend the holiday with my girls instead."

It isn't the full reason, it isn't the full truth, but it makes her heart grow, seeing the happiness on Maggie and Alex's faces.

Maggie closes the fridge and steps closer. "Really? You're just going to blow off Washington?"

"Can you do that?"

Lucy shrugs. "They can manage without me, it's fine. I'd rather be here."

She breathes easy when they accept her words and they don't push for a deeper reason.

They spend dinner planning. It's their first Fourth since they got together. Alex and Maggie banter easily back and forth, debating going out or staying in. Lucy stays quiet, watching them, enjoying the happy smiles Maggie gives her and the way Alex's fingers reach to tangle with her own when she sets her fork down.

They settle on the beach, just the three of them instead of their whole group of friends. Maggie has the day off, but Alex, and likely Lucy, will still be on call with the DEO. So they don't make extravagant plans, but agree on an afternoon sprawling in the sun and floating in the waves, with dinner reservations later. 

And watching the fireworks over the water at night.

The first few days of the month, Lucy is on edge. She feels the tension in her chest, hard and coiled, preparing for what's coming. She leaves the apartment early and stays late at work. She doesn't downright avoid Alex and Maggie, but she needs space and doesn't want them to see how anxious she is.

When she is at home, she focuses her attention outwards, cooking each night, attacking the always-present mountain of laundry. Alex comes home with scratches above her eye and nasty bruises on her hip.

"I'm fine. The alien was like, half the size of me."

Lucy replenishes the first aid kit and the medicine cabinet. And then she buys groceries and spends her free time cleaning the apartment.

The night before the Fourth Lucy is jittery. Her hands shake and her muscles are cramping and sore from staying so tense. She tears a strip off of more than one of the new DEO recruits. She breaks a glass at dinner and snaps at Maggie in the evening. She feels both their eyes on her, but instead of feeling cared for, their concern makes her skin crawl.

Lucy wants to skip past this holiday, wants to fast forward past the cheering and laughing, past the flashes of colour and sound as people celebrate in jubilation.

Lucy wants to fast forward past the shouting and yelling, past the explosions of colour and sound that feel too much like a war zone.

It's been years since her deployment, but Lucy is still a soldier, and she still has her trauma, no matter how far she shoves it down.

Her apology to Maggie that night is hard and rushed as she shoves her against the bed, pinning her arms and straddling her hips. She kisses Maggie roughly, grinds her hips down, and Maggie moans and writhes beneath her. She feels Alex's hands on her back and she tenses, turning and dragging Alex down onto the bed, kissing her just as hard.

When she breaks for air, Lucy loosens her grip on Alex's arms, sees the red marks she's left. She softens and checks in with them both, wanting to be sure they are both okay with the pace she's setting.

Something passes between Maggie and Alex, they seem to understand that tonight Lucy needs this from them. The tension from the week is building, is snapping, and though Lucy has insisted nothing is wrong, they know her better than that. So they give her what she needs.

She fucks them hard and fast, and then again, slower and more predatory. They both catch on after Lucy slaps Maggie's hands away the second time – she doesn't want their touch, she wants to drive them hard into the bed and leave them gasping and seeing stars. Her voice is low and raw against Maggie's thighs as she commands Maggie's hands, urging her to press deeper into Alex while Lucy uses her tongue and teeth against Maggie. Maggie's voice is husky with need and Alex's breathy sounds grow higher in pitch and Lucy does not give up control, forces her anger at her own weakness into leaving her girls breathless and spent.

Her eyes sting with tears because she knows what tomorrow brings, but she doesn't let them see.

When Lucy finally feels like she's regained control, like she's shoved her pain and memories down far enough, it’s late into the night. She complies, exhausted and tension-free – for now – as Alex and Maggie draw her close. They settle into the bed, sweaty and warm and tangled together and Lucy feels the ache in her heart lessen for the first time in days. Alex's fingers in her hair and Maggie's hand on her stomach ground her and she drifts into sleep.

She wakes to light streaming through the half-closed curtains.

She wakes, and the tension is back, threefold.

Maggie is pressed against her back, and the heat coming off her body is stifling and sets Lucy on edge the moment her eyes open. Maggie is like a furnace against her and it feels overbearing.

Alex is in front of her and has her arm draped over Lucy's middle. The weight feels heavy as it presses down, suffocating her. It feels like Lucy can't breathe.

Lucy feels trapped between the two of them, and she suddenly, desperately, needs to get away.

How is she going to make it through tonight, if moments into the day she's already breathing heavy and squeezing her eyes shut, fighting back the panic.

She's been trapped like this before, unable to move and unable to breathe under crushing weight as the world exploded over her. And this feels nothing like that. But this feels everything like that.

Lucy manages to only jostle Alex awake as she manoeuvres herself off the bed.

"Hey."

Her voice is rushed, louder than she wants it to be. "Go back to sleep, Al."

"You okay?" Alex's eyes drift open and closed, trying to focus on Lucy and fight back sleep.

"I'm fine," Lucy insists and kisses Alex with a gentleness she doesn't feel inside.

She goes for a long run, pushes herself harder than she should, but it doesn't help. She gets home, exhausted and shaking and dripping with sweat, but she feels more anxious than ever.

When she comes out of the shower, she feels worse. Lucy feels like she's on a hair trigger. Every noise, every movement, sends tension jolting through her. Her hands are clenched and her steps are slow and forceful.

She sits at the table, and Maggie smiles wordlessly as she hands her a plate with toast and yoghurt. The toast is darker than Lucy likes, and she glares at Maggie's back as Maggie moves through the kitchen. It isn't even burnt, but it still sets Lucy off. She has no reason to be angry but she feels it bloom inside her anyway.

Alex paces back and forth, on the phone with her mother. On one of her passes across the room her hand trails over Lucy's shoulder lightly, absentmindedly. Lucy feels her blood boil at the touch and flinches away, but Alex hardly notices.

She's gripping the table, knuckles white.

She isn't going to make it to tonight.

Alex ends her call and walks over to Maggie, smiling happily as Maggie hands her coffee and a plate with eggs done her favourite way. Alex murmurs something and Maggie’s light laughter trills out into the quiet room.

Lucy loves them.

She loves them. She does.

But right now she can't stand them.

She doesn't think she can spend a day at the beach with them, pretending she's okay, convincing them she's okay when the muscles in her legs are so tight she can't move and all her eyes can see is red.

She doesn't want to think about the fireworks over the water.

How it will bring back memories of screaming and crying and explosions of fire and pain.

And then both Lucy and Alex's phones go off in the same moment, and Lucy tips her head back and sighs. Aliens and distractions she can handle.

Maggie misreads her, thinking it's a sigh of annoyance instead of relief. "Don't answer it," she insists, looking at them both.

Alex ignores her and snatches her phone off the counter. "Danvers."

Maggie shakes her head and Lucy offers her a small smile as she reaches for her own phone. "Duty calls."

"I know," and Maggie smiles back, because she does know.

There's an alien attack on the pier, near the outskirts of the city; J'onn is out in the field already and Kara is on her way. There are multiple targets; Lucy is needed at the command centre and Alex is being deployed with a team of other agents.

With one look at their faces after they've hung up, Maggie insists she's coming too.

Lucy and Alex both rush out, "No, no, you deserve the day off, babe," and "You stay home, Mags, we can handle this."

Eventually, Maggie relents and then the three of them are jumping into motion, Alex and Lucy hastily assembling in their work clothes. Maggie is right where they need her, out of the way and offering them their badges, keys, and gear, and kisses goodbye. 

She's not scheduled to work today, she technically has the holiday off, so she'll only be called into the police station if things get really bad.

At least one of them should enjoy the day, so Alex and Lucy agree to not let things get really bad.

Lucy does okay the first few hours, standing in the city centre base, giving commands and making quick decisions. She listens over the comms as Alex goes about her mission with her usual recklessness, trying to contain the downed aliens as Kara drives the rest of them out of the city.

But a few aliens turn into a swarm of aliens and the stress of containing the situation starts to drag on and on. Lucy's back starts to ache with how stiffly she stands. Her palms begin to bubble with crescent moons of blood from her clenched fists. There's a pounding at the back of her head, in her jaw, but she pushes through.

Someone to the right of Lucy makes a joke about it not being a national holiday without National City's hero making an appearance.

An agent behind her says something about Supergirl's red, gold, and blue being pretty close to the day's theme of patriotic colours.

Lucy is on edge and wants to escape. But she has a job to do, so she tries to press on.

The gunshots from Alex and her team's fire on the swarm ring through the comms and on any other day Lucy could handle it, on any other day gunshot would just be gunshot, would just be her work, her life.

But today it sends her back to the desert, sends her through memories of every Fourth of July since the desert, sends her reeling as the memories of exploding shrapnel and slick blood echo inside her head.

Kara gets things under control with the aliens, and Lucy begins issuing clipped instructions for the clean-up crews to start, for Alex's team to return with any of the hostages, and for the other units to ensure there were no civilian injuries.

The attack is over, but still, the day drags on and on and Lucy can hardly see, can hardly breathe with how tense her body is. There is a heavy, black weight on her chest, waiting for tonight when the real pain starts.

She's standing at the command, light streaming in through the glass windows and people are moving and bustling around her and she's suffocating. She snaps and snarls at Alex and J'onn over the comms. She ignores Maggie's name when her phone lights up. Turns her phone off. Kara's cheerful voice makes her livid and she growls at the superhero too.

Winn and Vasquez, at the terminals near where she stands, take the brunt of her anger throughout the day, and she can see in their eyes that the tension coming off her in waves is visible to them, is scaring them.

But finally, it ends. Finally, she can collapse at her desk, hiding in the silence of paperwork.

Before National City, before Maggie and Alex, Lucy spent the Fourth alone. Alone, with wine, a bath, and a movie with the volume as loud as she could stand to drown out the noise outside. Alone, with her scars and her memories surfacing to the symphony of brightly coloured explosions across the sky.

She loses track of time, enjoying the stillness of the quiet office and ignoring the cramping in her hand. When she finishes all the paperwork on her desk, she goes to Alex's lab and retrieves her girlfriend's paperwork to do that as well. Alex hates paperwork, so there is a lot for Lucy to do, backlogged from their last few missions.

She fills in and files everything she can, leaving sticky tabs indicating where Alex needs to sign and any details she needs to fill in on her own.

Late in the afternoon, there's a knock at her door, then the door is opening and Vasquez is saying, "Ma'am?" before Lucy can prepare herself for being disturbed.

Lucy takes a deep breath, blows it out slowly, before looking up. "Yes?"

"Detective Sawyer is here."

Why is Maggie here? Alex came out of the mission today no worse for wear. She can't think of a reason for Maggie to be stopping in; Lucy and Alex said they'd get home as soon as they could when they left that morning.

"Can I let her know you're here, or should I tell her you're out in the field right now?"

Lucy bites her lip at the concern on Vasquez's face, at how the door is only open a crack, just enough for Vasquez to poke a head in; Lucy's sanctuary has not been breached.

Vasquez was the one who told Lucy she wouldn't be needed at the command centre anymore if she wanted to go somewhere quiet to work instead. Despite enduring Lucy's harsh commands all day, Vasquez is still here, offering Lucy an out if she needs it.

"No, you can… you can tell her I'm here."

Vasquez nods and slips out, pulling the door closed with a soft click.

Lucy doesn't go back to her paperwork. She stares at the door, waiting, apprehension and anxiety building.

It's a full ten minutes before there's a knock at her door. Maggie doesn't open the door, though, until Lucy calls her in.

Maggie wears an easy, soft smile as she steps into the room, and Lucy finds herself smiling back. Her entire body feels exhausted and sore from agitation about hearing the fireworks tonight, but she can't help smiling when she sees her girlfriend.

"Hey," Maggie says, walking over to Lucy's side of the desk and leaning against the edge. Lucy eases her chair back slightly and looks up at Maggie.

Maggie is in her space, is very close, but she doesn't move to reach out and touch Lucy, doesn't try to kiss her hello. Her eyes are gentle as she studies Lucy's face, but Lucy can see the worry hiding beneath.

She feels calm and safe in her office, so she reaches forward and takes Maggie's hand.

Maggie's smile grows slowly on her face, her eyes happy. She lifts Lucy's hand, slow and careful in case Lucy wants to pull away, and kisses Lucy's knuckles. "How you feeling?" she asks against Lucy's skin before lowering Lucy's hand to her lap.

"Okay. Tired."

Maggie nods, but there's something deeper there like she knows there's more. "Got them all?"

"Yeah, every last one. You saw?"

"Babe, the swarm was all over the news."

"They didn't call you in?"

"Nope, it seemed Supergirl and the mystery people in black had everything under control. You guys did good, keeping them out of the downtown, away from potential casualties and your usual property damage."

Lucy smiles faintly.

"Ready to get out of here? Vasquez said there's no way you could still have paperwork to do." She glances down at the stacks of paper on Lucy's desk and raises her eyebrows. "You know Alex is supposed to do her own, right?"

"She hates paperwork."

"If you and I have to do our own, I think she can manage. She's a big girl. So, head out?"

Lucy hesitates, "…Yeah. Are we… still going to the beach?"

If Maggie says yes, Lucy will go. And she will try her damnedest to enjoy the fireworks, no matter how hard it is to hold back the shaking.

"No. Alex said she's kind of beat," Maggie smirks and rolls her eyes, and then goes on, "We were thinking of doing something quiet instead?"

Her eyes watch Lucy carefully, and Lucy wonders how much she's let on, how much her girlfriends have seen of what she's been trying to ignore, trying to hide.

"Quiet sounds amazing."

Maggie nods. "Good." She waits while Lucy shuffles the stacks of paper on her desk and gathers her things. Then she offers her hand and Lucy takes it, lets Maggie tug her into a kiss.

Maggie leads Lucy through the building and down to the basement garage towards Lucy's car. Then she holds out her free hand expectantly.

"Mags, you don't have to–"

"I was forced to sit on my ass while you were at work all day, Lane. Keys, now." She waits for a beat and then adds. "Please?"

Lucy relents and lets herself be ushered into the passenger seat. Maggie hands her a pair of sunglasses – Alex's – and turns the radio on to something light and melodic. She drives one-handed, the other hand in Lucy's lap, fingers threaded with Lucy's.

Maggie's presence is quiet and comforting. The soft music, the rocking of the car, and the weariness she feels in her bones from days and days of anxiety and dread help Lucy relax, and she drifts off. She doesn't feel better, not exactly, but she feels more content than she's felt all week.

She wakes after some time and releases Maggie's hand to stretch. Then she sinks back down in the seat, eyes still closed, and finds Maggie's hand again.

"Good nap? Do you feel better?"

"Yes, actually. To both."

She hears the happiness in Maggie's voice. "Good."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"A little while."

And as Lucy starts to wonder if Maggie just drove them in circles to let Lucy sleep, she becomes aware that the sound of the road is not that of the city streets. She opens her eyes, and even the sunglasses don't help. It's bright; the sun is setting on Lucy's side, light shining directly in her eyes. She squints and turns away, looking at Maggie.

And sees the sand.

Maggie laughs as Lucy jerks up in her seat, looking back and forth as she scans the area in front of them. "Relax, Lucy."

"Where are we? I thought we weren't going to the beach."

"Does this look like the beach?" she teases, still laughing.

"Where–" and then she sees the base. "Maggie, what's going on?"

Maggie hears the panic rising in her voice. She glances quickly at Lucy and cups her cheek. Her eyes flick to the road, and then back to Lucy. "Lucy, relax. It's a surprise. You're okay, I promise." She turns back to the road.

Maggie's eyes are open and honest, and Lucy lets herself breathe.

She gets out her phone and texts Alex.  _What's going on?_

Alex doesn't answer, which Lucy figures is no surprise. Maggie shakes her head when she sees what Lucy's doing, but doesn't try to stop her. "Babe, trust me."

"I do. I just. Want to know why we're going to the DEO's desert base."

Maggie doesn't say anything more, so Lucy eases back into her seat, dragging Maggie's free hand into her lap.

She does feel better after the nap; no longer feels like everything around her will set her off. The tightness still lurks in her chest, but right now it's overpowered by lightness, by Maggie's gentle presence.

They pull up to the few other sparsely parked cars, and Lucy is still tugging her seatbelt off when Maggie appears on the other side of the car, opening the door and offering Lucy a hand to get out.

Lucy looks at her suspiciously but takes Maggie's hand.

Maggie tugs her up, wrapping her other arm around Lucy's waist and pulling her into a kiss as the car door closes. She nudges Lucy back a step, so she's leaning against the car as Maggie kisses her languidly. It's slow and happy and Lucy feels herself melting for a moment, lost in Maggie's care and attention.

Maggie pulls back, watching Lucy's face as she asks, "Still good?"

Lucy nods.

"Awesome. Now, if you don't mind," she gestures towards the base, "I believe the doors open for a Director, not a civilian with a hall pass."

Lucy fights back a smirk and huffs but she leads Maggie towards the base. It's a holiday, so there's only a bare-bones crew, but security lets Lucy in without question, and Maggie follows a step behind.

Once inside, Maggie takes Lucy's hand and starts off down the hall. Maggie's only been to the desert base twice since the three of them started dating, but she walks with determination. At each fork in the hallway, Maggie looks at each option carefully before tugging Lucy in a new direction.

"You could just tell me where we're going, you know."

Maggie just raises her eyebrows at her and continues walking.

They end up outside the cafeteria and Maggie looks frustrated. Clearly, this was not where she intended to take Lucy, but she refuses Lucy's second offer of help. Instead, she takes out her phone and takes a few steps away from Lucy. "Got lost," she says when the other person answers. Maggie nods along with whatever the other person is saying, "Cafeteria. Okay. Yup."

She holds the phone to her ear with one hand, and takes Lucy's hand with her other, and sets off again.

Lucy has no idea what's going on, but she smiles at how hard Maggie is trying to keep the mystery up.

They end up outside one of the training rooms.

"Yeah, okay, we found it," Maggie says into the phone. She drops Lucy's hand so she can open the door. Then she waves Lucy through.

Alex is inside. She's wearing one of Lucy's Harvard sweatshirts and a pair of pyjama bottoms. She's holding her phone to her ear and smiling goofily at Lucy.

Lucy looks back over her shoulder at Maggie and then looks at Alex again. "What's going on?"

"Come here," Alex says, and it echoes through both of the phones. She hangs up and pockets hers as she steps towards Lucy and pulls her into her arms.

Lucy's arms wrap around Alex's frame automatically. She's still confused, but she returns the hug.

Alex pulls back and tucks a strand of Lucy's hair behind her ear, and kisses her quickly. And then kisses her a second time, longer and squeezing Lucy close.

When Alex lets her go, Lucy takes in the state of the training room. Her mouth opens in surprise.

A section of the sparring mats are covered with a red and black checked blanket, and an actual picnic basket – they own a picnic basket? – sits near. The lights in the room are bright, but there are candles placed here and there along the floor, lit and flickering.

There's an air mattress with a number of pillows and blankets, Maggie's laptop, and a bag of clothes.

She turns back, and Maggie is pressing a happy kiss to Alex's lips and slipping off her leather jacket, tossing it onto the mattress.

"I don't understand."

"Well," Alex says, "the alien swarm kind of ruined beach day, but I still wanted that picnic with my girls."

Lucy is still missing something. "But why here?"

Alex takes Lucy's hand and drags her down onto the picnic blanket. Maggie follows, beginning to pull things out of the basket.

"Soundproof room," Alex says simply.

"Soundproof…"

"The city base has soundproof rooms, too," Alex goes on, "But I figured this was more private. It gets us away from everyone at work, and away from the lights tonight." She smiles tenderly, hesitantly, at Lucy.

Lucy looks back and forth between them; lips parted but unsure what to say.

"Still okay, Luce?" Maggie asks.

"Perfect," Lucy whispers, leaning forward to wrap her arms tightly around Alex. She reaches her arm out blindly, dragging Maggie into the embrace. She's surprised by her own tears, embarrassed by them, so she takes a moment to hide her face in Alex's neck. It feels so different from this morning; their touch is close and comforting, not confining.

Lucy and Maggie change into the pyjamas Alex hands them; Lucy ends up in one of Maggie's tank tops, and she thinks Maggie ends up in a Maggie-shirt as well. When it comes to casual wear, whose clothes were whose originally have lost meaning. Which means sometimes Lucy ends up in clothes she swims in, and sometimes Alex awkwardly tugs on pants that are too short for her.

They settle on the blanket, Maggie serving out food and Alex dragging over pillows and Maggie's laptop to queue up a movie.

Lucy feels like something is missing; all of the tension from the last few days has just - evaporated. It feels like there's an empty space where the tension should be, but instead, it’s slowly filling with peace and happiness.

She stays quiet while Alex relays the high points of her day taking down the swarm of aliens and of Kara's heroics, but when there's a lull in the conversation Lucy asks, "Why did you… How did you…?"

Maggie levels her with a look that says she should know better than to underestimate them, and Alex tugs Lucy backwards into her arms, pressing Lucy's back against her front.

"You've been tense all week. And it seemed like you were on fire today especially."

"And you don't normally bail on Washington, as much as you hate it. We put two and two together. After Al had things under control today, she talked to J'onn about us camping out here while I packed up what we needed. Then she set everything up while I was picking you up from the city."

"You guys are too much," Lucy whispers.

Alex hugs her tighter and Maggie eases closer, laying her hands on Lucy's knees and watching her face. "Lucy, you should have said you didn't want to do anything today."

"It was…"

Alex kisses her hair, asking, “The fireworks?"

Lucy nods, feeling her eyes prick with tears. She doesn't talk about her deployment, not about the hard parts. She's told them about a few of her scars – they all have scars and stories behind them – and she's told them how she earned her decorations. She's mentioned offhandedly some of the cases she handled in the JAG Corps, about working with her father and rising to Major.

But she doesn't talk about having been in an active combat zone. Doesn't talk about the sand and the blood and the pain while she handled cases. Never mentioned the hails of bullets that sent her heart racing every time.

They know she doesn't like thunderstorms, but she's never told them why. She let them assume it was a childhood fear that never went away.

"It was so loud there, when I was…" she starts quietly, but can't finish. "And fireworks are always so… so much."

Maggie smiles sadly at her, eyes shining wetly, and Alex hugs her tighter. "No fireworks in here," Alex says, "Just your girls, some comfort food, and Netflix." Her voice sounds strained.

"I'm sorry," Lucy breathes out, "For snapping at you. Both of you."

Maggie squeezes Lucy's knees and shakes her head. "We should have caught on sooner to what was bothering you."

"I didn't want you to know. It’s dumb. They aren't real. It's a stupid thing–"

"No, Lucy. Your pain isn't stupid; it’s real. It hurts. It’s allowed to hurt."

"We're here for you, Lucy," Alex says, shifting them so she can see Lucy's face. She wipes away Lucy's tears, fingers tender and feather light. "You don't have to talk about your pain if you aren't comfortable, but you don't need to hide it from us, okay? We can share it with you, keep your heart a little lighter."

Lucy nods and Maggie leans closer, kisses Lucy's temple and says, "We love you, Luce. Always. You never need to hide from us."

The end up tangled together on the air mattress. Maggie reclines back, leaning on the pillows, with the computer on her lap. Lucy has her head on Maggie's stomach; arms wrapped around her middle and clinging to her while Maggie cards her fingers through Lucy's hair. Alex lays at Lucy's back, one arm propping her head up, the other draped over Lucy's side, trailing thoughtless designs along Lucy's ribs.

The tension is gone, finally. For good. And Lucy hears no fireworks tonight, or any Fourth after.


End file.
